After spending two seasons in his first head coaching job at Western Kentucky, Keady spent 25 years at the helm of Purdue, where he compiled a 512-270 overall record to become the school's all-time winningest coach. Keady was voted the national coach of the year four times (1984, 1995, 1996, 2000). He was the Big Ten coach of the year seven times, leading the Boilermakers to the conference championship five times. He was a three-sport letter-winner at Kansas State, playing football and baseball in addition to running track.